Apparatus for electric welding



Jan. 29, 1935. E. MARKLEY 1,989,172

nfrARAi FOR ELECTRIC WELDING Filed June 11, 1930 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR.

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A TTORNEYJ Jan. 29, 1935. s. E. MARKLEY APPARATUS FOR ELECTRIC WELDING 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed June 11, 1930 INVENTOR 3/ m r cju g A TTORNEYS George S77ZanZ BY 3mg, ML

Patented Jan. 29, 1935 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE APPARATUS FOR ELECTRIC WELDING George E. Markley, Cleveland Heights, Ohio Application June 11, 1930, Serial No. 460,418

7 Claims. (Cl. 219-4) In the practice of electric welding, it has genof work pieces, for convenience it is here illustraterally been customary to scam by passing an eleced as applied to a tube which is shaped up from trode along the metal edges to be seamed, or consheet stock s, and the edges brought together versely by feeding the work under the electrode, in a manner well known in the art. Another elec- 5 while supplying the welding current interrupted trode 6 is connected with a secondary winding 5 by a make and break device such as to provide 7 of the transformer, the circuit being completcurrent flow at spaced intervals along the seam. ed through the work by a contact element 8.

Such interruption of heavy currents required in With relative movement provided between the welding offers much dimculty, the make and work and the electrodes, either the electrodes be- .10 break contacts quickly burning out, besides being ing moved along the work, or the work piece be- 10 wasteful in operation. ing moved under the electrodes, as most conven- In accordance with the present invention howient in any particular instance, a welding curever, it is possible to avoid-such difliculties, and rent of alternating or pulsating or fluctuating welding may be had without the fundamental character is supplied from the winding 3 to the 5 handicap of having to break the current, and at electrode 2 and the work while the relative movethe same time, superior results may be had in ment and the current flow are so correlated that seaming. a series of softened points 9 are produced under To the accomplishment of the foregoing and rethe electrode as the seam passes along, and these lated ends, the invention, then, consists of the under the pressure to which the seam is held form features hereinafter fully described, and parspaced welds.

ticularly pointed out in the claims, the following On coming under the successive electrode 6, description and v the annexed drawings setting current is had from the winding '7, and the correforth in detail certain embodiments of the inlation is so adjusted that the current flow at this vention, these being illustrative however of but a location occurs at the intermediate points between a few of the various ways in which the principle of the spaced welds produced by the first electrode the invention may be employed. 2, thereby completing the weld areas and forming In said annexed drawings: a seam welded throughout.

Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic elevational view of By having such arrangement of successive elecapparatus contemplated in the invention; Fig. trodes and separate windings for their respective 3o 2 is a similar view of another form; Fig. 3 is a. current supply, I am enabled furthermore to adgraphic representation of one form of undulatory just the windings to gauge the current for the current applicable in the process; Fig. 4'indiparticular requirements of each electrode. For cates schematically the action of such type of instance, where a seam has already been partly current in continuous weld action; Fig. 5 is a made by the first electrode, the resistance encounrepresentation of another form of undulatory curtered under a successive electrode is different from rent; and Figs. 6 and 7 are diagrammatic views that initially encountered, and the winding for of other apparatus arrangements. the supplyv of such electrode may accordingly In its general aspects the invention contembe thus adapted to the conditions encountered. plates welding by undulatory heating-current In the form of the invention shown in Fig. 2, an 40 application without breaking the circuit and such electrode 2 is arranged on the work W, and reas to especially heat and soften spaced-apart ceives current from secondary windings S1, S2,

points along a seam, (the initially cooler interme- S1, S2, which may be connected in series, and ardiate points acting to, limit the crowding together ranged preferably on pole pieces 10 of a stator 11. of the seam edges and thus checking flash-over or Primary windings P, conveniently arranged adfinning), and supplying current to the said interjacent the secondaries, are connected in series mediate points for controlled welding also with line L supplying a pulsating or fluctuating or thereat. alternating current, single phase or polyphase.

Referring to Fig, 1, there is shown an electrode Means is pr vid d t p ri y shift he ma 2,preferably in the form of an electrode roll, connetic flux into a metallic shunt path, and the nected to the secondary winding 3 of a translatter may take the form of a rotor R having di- 50 former having a primary winding 4 supplied from ametral portions sweeping close to the pole pieces. a single phase line. The circuit of the secondary The shaft 12 of the rotor is driven by any suitable winding 3 is completed through the work W by means, for instance a motor. For work on barrels suitable means, for instance a roller 5. While and articles of definite length, conveniently the u seaming may be carried on with different forms electrode roll 2 may be carried by a support 12 may be supported on a work-holder 14 adjustable as to height. Relative movement may be had by moving the electrode or by moving the work, as may be preferred.

With a fluctuating or pulsiform or alternating current, for instance a single phase or polyphase current from the line L through the primary windings P and a relative movement provided by the driving of the rotor R at a rate greater or less than synchronism with the primary current, there will be induced in the secondary-windings waves timed generally to those in the primary but there will be a periodic diminution in amplitude, or a modulation thereof as the magnetic flux is varied by periodic diversion'through the metallic shunt path ofiered by the rotor R. In some instances, it may .be more convenient to revolve the windings and maintain the metallic shunt path stationary. However accomplished, a current supply having periodic increase and decrease is had and for instance with a 60 cycle feed to the primaries and a subsynchronous driving rate of the machine, a current having a wave form is had somewhat as illustrated in Fig. 3, in which the amplitude swing of alternating form is periodically reduced to a very low minimum. By suitable proportioning of the secondary windings S2 with respect to the windings $1, the extent of the diminution toward or to zero may be governed, and this constitutes a highly important advantage of this form of device. For instance, with some classes of work, where relatively little cooling between softened weld points is desirable, the proportioning of the respective sets of secondary windings may be readily made such as to yield a wave form in which the diminution of amplitude toward zero is correspondingly slight. On the other hand, where greater cooling is desired between hot-points along the seam, the secondary windings S2 may be proportioned still smaller such as to diminish the current nearly to or even substantially to zero. a

With relative movement provided between the work piece W, and the electrode 2', a spaced series of thoroughly softened weld points is had, and the intermediate points being cooler do not yield under the seam-compression, and thus they prevent excessive crowding together and resultant overflowage into a flash or fin, although they are sufliciently heated to allow enough cohering to close and complete the seam. This action is exaggeratedly indicated in Fig. 4, in which a portion of the work W is shown on magnified scale, and

the points h represent the points along the seam which are well softened, while the intermediate points 0 represent the cooler points which resist deformative compression and flash-over and which barely cohere.

In some cases, the welding electrode may be supplied by a current from a generator instead of from a transformer type of device. Such generator may be one of various forms providing currents of modulated undulatory character. For instance, an inductor-altemator may be employed, and a current of wave-form somewhat as in Fig. 5. A similar result can be accomplished by running rotor R of Fig. 2 at supersynchronous speed. Again, in some cases, an undulatory current derived from superposing a direct current and an alternating current may be employed. As illustrated in Fig. 6, a circuit having a D. C. generator 15 and an A. C. generator 16 in series may supply the electrode 2". v

In the arrangement shown in Fig. 7, a succes- 1,989,172 insulatively mounted on a frame 13, and the work sion of electrodes 2a, 6a, is shown, each supplied by current from secondary windings of the respective machines 11a, 11b, whose primaries are connected to the single phase A. C. line L. By correlating the drives of the respective machines and the work movement, the first electrode may provide weld spots 9a, and the successive electrode may finish up the intermediate points, heating them thus to the same extent as the initial spots 9a. Such procedure provides a thoroughly uniform weld seam, but with the same advantages again that intermediate cooler points prevent flash overflow.

. By adjusting the rate of motion and the wave rate, it will thus be seen that the softened spots along the seam may be provided as may be desired, andwithal it becomes possible toattain a good unio'n without deformation, since the cooler points intervening between the softened points afford a limitation upon the extent to which pressure may cause flowage or finning of the metal at the seam; and with the successive application of further electrodes, all of the metal throughout the seam may be in succession brought to a weld without surplus fiowage.

Welding in the form of butt-seaming or lapseaming can thus be readily accomplished in accordance with the invention, and various kinds of work may be handled, whether flat or tubular, and the process is particularly well adapted to the production of tubes, as well as cans, barrels, etc. Where the rotor-stator type of currentsupply device is employed, and with successive electrodes along the work, a common mounting for the rotors may be had, where preferred, one

drive shaft carrying all the moving parts, includseparate secondary winding in circuit with each electrode, and a primary winding inductively coupled to each said secondary winding and supplied by an alternating current, and a rotor turning in relation for periodically shifting the magnetic flux successively in said secondary winding.

2. Apparatus for electricwelding, which comprises a work support, an electrode, and a means for current supply thereto including a primary winding adapted to be supplied by alternating current, a secondary winding in circuit with the electrode and constantly inductively coupled to said primary winding, and a rotor for periodically directing the primary magnetic field away from the secondary winding.

3. Apparatus for electric welding, which comprises awork support, an electrode, and means for current supply thereto including 'a stationary primary winding connecting with a source of alternating current, a stationary secondary winding in circuit with the electrode and inductively coupled to said primary winding, a rotor revolving past said secondary winding and carrying a metallic shunt path for the magnetic flux, and means for revolving the rotor.

4. Apparatus for electric welding, which comprises a work support, an electrode, and means secondary windings all connected in series to the electrode, primary windings adjacent and inductively coupled to said secondary windings and connected in series to a source of alternating current, and rotor means for periodically directing the magnetic field away from the secondary windings.

6. Apparatus for electric weldlml, which comprises-a work support, electrodes spacedtherealong, and means for current supply to the respective electrodes, including a separate set of secondary windings in series-connection with each electrode, a set of primary windings inductively coupled to each set of said secondary windings and connected in series to a source of alternating current, and a rotor for revolving past eachset of secondary windings and periodically providing metallic shunt paths for the magnetic flux, said rotors being at angles to each other.

7. Apparatus for electric welding, which comprises a work support, electrodes spaced therealong, and means for current supply to the respective electrodes, including a stator and a rotor for each, pole pieces on said stators, primary windings thereon connected in series to a source of alternating current, secondary windings on said stators and inductively coupled with said primary windings and each stator set thereof connected in series with a respective electrode, and a shunt path of low reluctance for magnetic flux carried by each rotor, said rotors being at angles 20 to each other. 1

GEORGE E. MARKLEY. 

